GOP tensions give Democrats hope of pulling House special election upset
Suburban Atlanta race viewed as referendum on Trump
CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Republicans had hoped Tuesday's special election in Georgia's wealthy and sleepy 6th Congressional District would be just like every other House race here since 1978: the mostly painless elevation of a rock-ribbed and polished conservative.
Those hopes have died. Now, this suburban swath north of Atlanta resembles the cracked mirror of the GOP's national identity crisis, with 11 candidates bitterly feuding over what it means to be a Republican in the age of President Donald Trump.
That crowded field is roiled by nerves about Trump and lingering internecine dramas over ideological purity. And with next year's midterm elections beginning to take shape, the race's currents could reverberate far beyond the white collegeeducated professionals along Interstate 285, regardless of which candidate emerges from the scrum Tuesday.
"You've got a miniature civil war going on there," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an ally of House GOP leaders. "We're all paying attention, since anything can happen in a special."
The splintered GOP has raised the possibility that the leading Democratic candidate, 30-year-old former congressional staffer Jon Ossoff, could win Tuesday's election outright with more than 50 percent of the vote, thus claiming an open House seat previously held by Trump's health and human services secretary, Tom Price.
Trump — who barely won this district last year and tweeted Monday that the media coverage of the race was a "game" and "BAD!" — is eager to stave off a Republican stumble that could become an ominous bellwether of his standing as he attempts to build support in the coming weeks for the big-ticket legislative items that have eluded him in the GOP-controlled Congress during the early months of his presidency.
If Ossoff places first or second with support in the mid-40 percent range among the 18 total candidates — surveys show that scenario as most likely — he will face a tougher matchup this summer, when many of the warring Republicans would almost certainly coalesce to save the seat.
Georgia's election law initially piles candidates of all stripes onto a single ballot. If no one wins a majority, the two top finishers move on to a headto-head contest months later.
"Having 11 people on our side is like eating our young," Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., a friend of Trump, said in an interview Monday. He compared the infighting to the "nightmare" of his own 2014 statewide primary and added: "You risk letting the Democrat slide through without a runoff. But I don't think that will happen if we get the turnout."